Acoustical drums are usually constructed with a cylindrical body, or shell, at least one tunable drumhead, and tensioning hardware. The drum shell is typically constructed from multiple-ply wood such as maple. However, to achieve the maximum projection, volume, and focus, drum shells (especially snare drum shells) are often made of brass or steel.
Depending upon the type of drum, the drum shell may have two batter ends, each of which is fitted with a tunable drumhead. However, for snare and tom drums, the drum shell typically has a batter end and a non-batter end. The batter end may be reinforced for mounting the tunable drumhead and the tensioning hardware, which one uses to adjust the tonal quality of the complete drum assembly. The non-batter end may also be reinforced in the same way.
Typically, the reinforcement is a uniformly thick band of wood along the inside or outside of the cylindrical wood shell at one end and extending a distance along the shell wall toward the opposite end. The resulting structure, although certainly an improvement upon a non-reinforced drum shell, often lacks the necessary structural integrity to support a wide range of tonal adjustment. Specifically, upon tightening of the tunable drumhead, the reinforced batter end of the shell may warp or collapse, resulting in a loss of circular symmetry, thus having a "choking" or muting effect which impairs resonance and degrades the drum's overall tonal quality.
Although many of the desired effects, e.g., increased structural integrity, as well as maximum projection, volume, and focus of sound, can be achieved by the use of a metal such as brass or steel instead of wood for the drum shell, it is widely known that such shells lose the flexibility and tonal warmth of a thin-walled wood shelled drum.
Attempts to remedy this problem by building wood-shelled drums with walls of uniformed thickness have achieved, to some extent, the volume and focus but still lack the flexibility of varied tuning and the warmth of tone and resonance that a thin-walled wood shell drum offers. Such drums are considered "one-dimensional" and are, as a rule, used as specialty drums for occasional performance or recording.